Christ Jesus was made like us so that we might be made like Him. In the incarnation was the union of Deity with humanity; in regeneration, there might be the union of humanity with Deity. When the Holy Spirit begat in the believer a new nature, He opened the door to a living, organic union between Christ and the Christian, which will exist through the ages upon ages to come. Christ and the Christian are eternally one. The exalted Christ lives now to bestow His own triumphant, joyous, holy life in all of its fullness upon us.

To be a Christian is nothing less than having the glorified Christ live in us in actual presence, possession, and power. It is to have Him as the Life of our life in such a way and to such a degree that we can say, even as Paul said, “To me to live is Christ.” To be a Christian is to grow up into Christ in all things: to have that divine seed planted in our innermost spirit and blossom into a growing conformity to His perfect life. This growth, this journey towards Christ’s perfect life, is what defines our Christian walk. To be a Christian is to have Christ in the life of our minds, hearts, and wills so that Christ is thinking through us, loving through us, and willing through us. It is increasingly to have no life but the life of Christ within us, filling us with ever-increasing measures.

But I can hear some modern Nicodemus say, “How can these things be?” How can I live such a life in my home where I receive no sympathy nor help but instead ridicule and scoffing and where I have for so long lived a sinful and defeated life? How can I live a truly consistent Christ life in my social circle where there is scarcely a person who ever gives Him a thought and where His name is never mentioned? How can I live “in the Spirit” in a place of business surrounded by those living altogether “in the flesh” and where the atmosphere seems surcharged with evil? How can I even learn to live more abundantly when my membership is in a worldly church where little is given to feed and strengthen my spiritual life?

As we are in Christ in the heavenlies, so is He in us on earth. Christ in us can live this life anywhere, which He longs to do. Our Lord gave this truth in germ in His last conversation with His disciples on earth. He had told them that He was going away from them, and they were wondering how they could be true disciples apart from Him. The burden of this last conversation was to assure them He would be with them in a spiritual Presence far more real and vital than their relationship with Him up to that time. The same life in Him as the Vine would flow through them as branches.

John 15:5

“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

It was likewise the burden of our Lord’s high priestly prayer on that last night.

John 17:23, 26

“I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. And I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou has loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

“I in them”—these three simple but significant words close the prayer with that little inner circle in which He breathed forth the passionate desire of His heart for His own on down through the centuries. Now, as well as then, it is the consuming desire of Jesus Christ to reincarnate Himself in the Christian.

In the revelation given him, the apostle Paul laid hold upon this precious, glorious truth woven into the warp and woof of his experience, preaching, and missionary service. “Christ liveth in me” was the very acme of his personal spiritual life.

Galatians 2:20

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.”

Philippians 1:21

“For to me to live is Christ.”

“Christ liveth in me” so that “To me to live is Christ”—there was nothing beyond this for Paul. Having the glorified Christ as his very life was all-inclusive in Paul’s spiritual experience. This, to him, was life on the highest plane.

“Christ in you” was the heart of his message to the churches. It rang out with clarity in all of Paul’s teaching and preaching. A cross-section from any of Paul’s epistles would reveal this truth written in capital letters.

Colossians 1:27

“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

“Christ in you” was the very passion of his missionary service. Paul might employ different methods in his service for God; he might be all things to all men, but the end, the aim, the goal of it all was just one thing with him—that Christ Jesus Himself might be formed in each one who heard the Gospel message.

Galatians 4:19

“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”

To be a Christian is to accept Christ as Savior and to crown Him as Lord. But there is one step more: it is to appropriate Him as Life. As the works within the watch are the real life of the watch, the Lord Jesus within the believer is the real life of the believer. “The Christian life is not merely a converted life nor even a consecrated life, but it is a Christ-life.” Christ is the Christian’s center; Christ is the Christian’s circumference and all in between. As Paul has put it, “Christ is all and in all.”

Colossians 3:4

“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Lord, what a great mystery. You, living Your eternal life within man!